If you haven’t seen the video yet, go watch it.  (The link is to a remixed version with bad music, you should download the original instead if you can find it.)  Better yet, download it on the PlayStation Network and watch it in HD on an HDTV to do it justice.  If you have surround sound setup with a powerful subwoofer, pump it up.  Click on the link for a large picture and imagine that in smooth motion.  They announce that as in-game footage so hopefully they will live up to the hype they are creating for themselves.

I don’t remember being this excited about a game after watching only a small, tiny little video like that.

Yes it seems like its on rails and you can only choose from a few options but I am more sold on the experience, as short as it may be.  Like a short, test roller coaster, its a ride you won’t soon forget and a taste of things to come.  Some of what they show in this video I would love to see integrated into other games.

Here is what I think from what little they show you of the video.  Faith, the protagonist, is a courier with sort of cat burglar/assassin/ninja training.  Perhaps its a family thing?  You can choose different paths.  I think the different paths you take are highlighted in different colors.  Red, dangerous, Orange medium and Blue safe?

During some scenes you notice blurring around the edges.  I think this hints at some sort of turbo function that you need to use to scale walls, etc.

Is it like Bouncer?

Is it in a city like Dubai?  I like the high contrast visuals and the bright white futuristic look.

Interesting to note is the fact that this is using the Unreal Engine 3! XO  That was a real surprise for me.

Here is the EA publicity spin.

"Mirror’s Edge - In a city where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called runners carry sensitive information on foot via the rooftops and skyways. Usually the police leave them alone - they have bigger fish to fry - but now something has changed…

Play as Faith, the best and most agile of all runners, in an adrenaline-fuelled race to save her sister’s life as she unveils a bigger plot involving the whole city and the runners. Mirror’s Edge is an action-adventure game that revolutionizes the genre by introducing a full body experience with dynamic 1st person movement and combat, in an immersive modern-day universe and with a socially charged storyline."

Check out this rarely shown screen of the action running/sliding away from the S.W.A.T. team.

Its been a while since we’ve seen any innovative updates to the XBox 360 operating system.  If the list circulating the internet is even partly true, this time around we may see some major improvements to our beloved bricking behemoth.

Xbox LIVE
1. Option to delay sign-in to Xbox LIVE on boot to allow user to set online status.
2. Option to promote child account from family settings.
3. Disable ability of child accounts over 18 to override family settings by launching privacy settings through a title.
4. Option in family settings for child accounts to enable child-oriented/non-mature advertisements.
5. Introduce a 4 person group chat for private chat and conferences through video chat.
6. Support to indicate media being watched to gamercard status (video content from Marketplace only).
7. Extend height for bio field in personal profile, easier navigation through text.
8. More fields present in personal profile - recent achievements, interests, games, movies, links, custom section.
9. Compact personal profile for new fields (navigating to field will open it up).
10. Mandatory option to delete duplicate titles from gamercard (excludes Games for Windows - LIVE). User disconnected from Xbox LIVE when booting any title until action complete.
11. Option to remove payment information from gamertag.
12. New payment methods for international users.
13. Download history on account management better organized - games, genre, type, download date, miscellaneous.
14. Long descriptions of items on marketplace can be scrolled using right stick. <–This should have been done long ago.  Perhaps prior to the release of Rock Band?
15. Better organization of free content on marketplace. <–This wouldn’t have been an issue if I hadn’t seen the much nicer way the PlayStation Network does it.
16. Option to ‘ping’ when testing connection.
17. Allow re-connection to Xbox LIVE if ethernet cable is re-inserted whilst powered on.  <–This is big for me.  Sometimes I unplug my router or switch and I hate having to go through the entire process to re-connect to XBox Live.
18. New strip colors available to developers, staff gamercards.  <–Different colors for Recreational and Pro gamers?
19. New corner icon available to ambassadors.  <–Ambassador?  Game with Fame?
20. Re-introduce messages button for Inside Xbox updates only.
21. Option to store up to 10 messages permanently on server excludes invites, status messages.
22. Increase character limit for text messages between friends only.  <–This doesn’t make sense if they enable Live Mail.
23. Option to disable invites from non-friends or all players.  <–I don’t get that many anymore so it doesn’t bother me much.
24. Option to disable invites from titles not on gamercard excludes demos.
25. Option to have smaller items moved up in active downloads.
26. Automatically re-connect to Xbox LIVE if disconnected unexpectedly at set intervals.
27. Option to download gamer picture, if available, from a gamercard being viewed.
28. Display random tips to replace static text on Xbox LIVE and games blades.
29. New button on Marketplace for optional dashboard features - uses storage device memory.
30. Option to donate Microsoft Points to anybody with a Windows Live ID.  <–Kind of cool.  Opens the door to tournament rewards or payment options for custom content like they promised years ago.  PGR4 Paint Jobs, etc.
31. Option to purchase membership for charities includes benefits.
32. Integrate file-sharing for selected titles on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows - LIVE.  <–More hints about that custom work.
33. Disable notifications to friends of user repeatedly signing into service for a set period.
34. Option to see ’snippet’ of text message in notification.
35. Windows Live Mail integration - includes support for Xbox LIVE Vision.
36. Web feeds integration - text, images, audio. Includes support for specific item codes on Marketplace.
37. Option to display gamer picture or standard picture as display picture in Windows Live Messenger.
38. Support for headset, Xbox LIVE Vision in Windows Live Messenger.
39. Support for limited ‘winks’ that display on dashboard interface. Option to disable ‘winks’ and ‘nudges’ added.
40. Notifications separate from Windows Live Messenger to Xbox 360 notifications.
41. Disable multiple languages from being used in any Xbox LIVE editable fields.

Games
1. Option to delete titles from gamercard with 0 gamerscore and 0 achievements excludes some titles that will be re-added to launch another title.  <–This is kind of cool.  A bit late to the game, but nice.
2. Organize My Games at the games library section better, includes disc-based titles, - sort by genre, platform, Games for Windows - LIVE and percentage completion.
3. Support to display friends leaderboards for disc-based titles.
4. Show dates of an achievement unlocked when comparing.
5. Preload games library upon dashboard bootup for faster access.
6. Game updates now shown as items in memory, increased amount of updates on storage device.  <–I don’t completely understand the second part of this.  They increased the amount of updates allowed or this update increased the amount of updates in general?
7. Option to delete game updates, removed ‘cheat code’ as no longer needed.
8. Support for more titles to display banner when accessing guide in-game.
9. Option to re-introduce awarded gamer pictures from titles that do not have their own re-introduce feature.  This requires a saved game.  <–Special rewards for getting 100% in Crackdown?  This is cool.
10. Disable gamer pictures from being awarded from trials.
11. Support for titles to store installation data on storage device for faster loading.  <–I’m assuming they don’t mean caching.  After all Halo 3 already did this.  So installation support.  This will be a pain for anyone but those few with the 120 GB hard drive.
12. Synchronization to achievements offline/online that were deleted and then re-added from developers.  <–They are deleting achievements now?  Limited time achievements for early adopters?  What can this mean?

Media
1. Option to hold LT and RT for rewinding/fast-forwarding video content.
2. Option to delete individual music tracks from storage device.
3. Option to rip music CD at different quality.
4. Copy non-protected files like pictures, music and videos from USB storage devices, CDs and computers to proprietary storage devices.
5. Support for menu, top-menu features on video content downloaded from Marketplace.
6. Section added for audio delivered through feeds such as podcasts. Option to stream, download to storage device.  <–I hope, but seriously doubt, that this means we can play podcasts directly through the connected iPod.  I already have podcasts streaming from my home server to the 360 so this won’t add any new functionalities.
7. Support added for video titles/description to gamercard status.  <–Hey everyone!  Nelson is watching porn again!

Dashboard/Miscellaneous
1. Option to navigate quickly out of several menus back to respective blade home.  This applies to games, media and system blades.
2. New blade trim styles added.  <–New blade styles?  So not just different color schemes?  I wonder if they will continue to charge for them?  The PS3 themes are VERY different, you can create your own and best of all, they are FREE.  XBox Live charges you a monthly fee then charges for these items on top of that.  Ouch.
3. Introduce expanded Inside Xbox as a portal to news, weather, entertainment, help and community features.
4. New sounds for various functions such as, notifications, blades and navigation.  <–Customized sounds for themes?
5. Calibration options for display/sound.
6. Calibration options for motion sensor devices.  <–Motion, Sensor, devices.  This could mean ANYTHING.  Lets not jump the gun and expect a Thrii-mote.
7. New effects for Xbox LIVE Vision and dashboard background.  <–Cool, but I hope they don’t charge.
8. Disable changing of theme when on memory to prevent lock ups.
9. Preload recent, limited items upon dashboard bootup on memory.  <–This means it is going to take longer to boot up.  Oh joy.
10. Faster loading of themes section on guide.
11. Option to see what items will not work offline due to DRM license changing from memory.  <–DRM is never good news.  But I guess this makes sense.  If you buy a game on XBox Live Arcade and you disconnect your 360, the least they could do is let you know that it won’t work.  Don’t bother taking your 360 to friends if they don’t have internet access people.
12. Option to automatically associate new DRM to items downloaded for free.  <–Question:  Why DRM free stuff?
13. Indicate charging status on guide when Play & Charge kit is connected.
14. Option to change text colors on guide to better contrast some backgrounds.
16. Language improvements.
18. Word censor updated for fields.
19. Privacy settings and family settings updated for new features.
20. Voice, picture messages can be read at Xbox.com exclusively for Gold accounts.

Kotaku believes this is fake.  I’m not so convinced.  These things are likely.  No one truly knows if they will ALL show up, but I think we will see most of them this Spring.

Have you guys seen the video yet?  It’s on XBox Live and all over YouTube.  I will post a link if you can’t find it on your own but I have faith you will have no trouble whatsoever.

It doesn’t show much fans didn’t already expect.  If you’ve seen the techdemo and the artistic announcement video then you know exactly what you are going to see in the sequel.

Many comments on the internets are complaining about how similar this game looks to its predecessor.  Honestly I am not phased by it.  I thoroughly enjoyed what the first one had to offer.  It was a short, action-packed story with innovative gameplay (unoriginal as it may be) and very fun multiplayer.  As a full-time employee and a homeowner, that was the perfect formula for a satisfied gamer.

This new game offers minor changes.  We can assume the following from the announcement sneak peek.  "Larger" maps, more enemies on screen, new weapons, the ability to use enemies as body shields, and ButtonSmashing (sic) chainsaw battles.

From what we have seen already, I believe it is safe to assume that this game will score slightly lower than the first because the gaming media is going to claim it is more of the same.  Perhaps it is.  But the fact remains at least for me, the first game was so much fun, I wouldn’t mind playing through it again.  Its a plus that the storyline will continue and there will be new features.

Of course we come to the inevitable question that follows.  I wouldn’t mind playing through it again, but would I mind paying full price for it again?  To be honest, I’m not so sure.

As much as I hate to admit it, the fact that the game looks the same, does have an effect.  If it looks the same and the physics are more or less the same, could this title just be a huge expansion instead?  Does this title warrant a number 2?  The rumors about the next Spring update include hard drive installations might make this possible if not, slightly less difficult.

Tomb Raider: Legend and Anniversary were supposed to do this.  They didn’t for whatever reason but if I could pay $40 for the sequel if I own the original, that would be really cool.  Unlikely, but cool.

Epic has been known to be generous to their fans, lets hope they continue this tradition.

Finally some deals at Fry’s this week.

Console Bundles
XBox 360 + Gun & Condemned 1 & XMen III $290.  (Refurbished w/ 90 day warrantee.)
PS3 + Stranglehold & Chillstream Controller $410.
PSP with 2 games & 5 movies $200.

Games

PSP
Exit $4.99
Virtua Tennis $4.99

DS
Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon $27.99

PC
The Orange Box $19.99
World in Conflict $19.99

PS3
F.E.A.R. $19.99
TimeShift $19.99
Pirates of the Carribbean $19.99

XBox 360
Bully $19.99
F.E.A.R. $19.99
TimeShift $19.99
Guitar Hero III $69.99

Wii
Bully $19.99
Ghost Squad $19.99
Pirates of the Carribbean $19.99

$12 Blu-Ray movies!!!
The Fifth Element
Gattaca
Blackhawk Down
Dogma
Underworld
The Patriot
The 5th Day
Run Lola Run
Hellboy
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Life of Brian
Kung Fu Hustle
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
A Knight’s Tale
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Legend of Zorro
Hitch